The Wonders of Animation
by ThePoeticWeirdo
Summary: In this sequel to The Illusion of Animation, everybody finds themselves going through the wonderful world of Chapter 3.
1. Chapter 1

**Well, I have never written a sequel before, but Chapter 3 inspired me to write a sequel to my story The Illusion of Animation. If you haven't read the first story, then in summary, Henry, Alice, Bendy, and Boris become friends because niceness and watch a movie together and Sammy turns out to be a normal guy with a very strange idea of what a good way to spend a Saturday night looks like. Anyway, the disclaimer: I don't own Bendy and the Ink Machine. I only wrote this story.**

"Henry! You're here!" Alice skipped up to hug her old friend. "We missed you so much! Come on in!" She grabbed the man's hand and pulled him into the building, nearly yanking his arm off in her excitement.

"Whoa, I know you can't wait, but could we slow down just a little? I don't have as much energy as I used to."

"Oh. Oops." The hyper toon let up on the pacing. "We have to go downstairs. Now that Sammy's stopped coming to the music department, we got to explore it a little and we found this really nice place for us to live in." She turned the corner and they began their descent. "It has so much space! Once we clean it up a bit, it'll be perfect!"

"I'm sure it will be. I can't wait to see it."

He didn't have to wait too long. A few rooms later, a certain little devil darling joined them. The combined excitement of the two toons got them through the rest of the journey in record time. Henry couldn't say that he wasn't the tiniest bit relieved when Boris stepped in.

"Guys, why don't we show him everything we've been working on?" the wolf called, seeing that his friend needed a bit of a rescue from the whirlwind of hyperactivity.

"Oh yeah! Henry, you have to see the Bendy clock! The way its feet swings is so funny!"

"No, Alice! We have to show him something cooler than that!"

"What do you mean, it's not cool? It's hilarious!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is totally too!"

"Guys!" Both of the arguing toons quieted down at the wolf's words. "Look, how about we show Henry around and not fight about it?" Alice and Bendy exchanged a glance and nodded in agreement. "Good," Boris sighed. "I apologize for the state of the place. We're still fixing it up and it's a bit of a mess right now."

"If there's anything I can do to help, please tell me."

"Thanks Henry. We're pretty much done, though." They walked into the next room and Bendy and Alice pointed things they thought were exciting.

"Oh! I know what we should see next!" Bendy suddenly exclaimed. He pulled a lever on the wall, opening a door to a passage that led into darkness.

Boris's ears shot up. "Bendy, I told you we're not going in there!"

"Aw, but Henry's here. If we all go together, why can't we explore a little bit?"

"Look, it…" The wolf sighed. "Look, it just doesn't seem safe. It's dark and the floor's half rotted and I'm just afraid that someone might get hurt."

"But Boris," Alice whined, "Sammy took away all the searchers and there's no one else in the studio now that Joey's gone, so why can't we go?"

"You aren't missing out on anything, really," Henry stepped in to help. "There isn't much to see besides a few old boxes of unsold merchandise. It's boring, trust me."

"Fine," Alice and Bendy grumbled. The angel leaned against the wall and sighed. "I'm just so bored!"

"Let's play something, then!" Bendy suggested. "How about hide and seek?"

"I guess."

"Great! I want to hide. Who wants to be the seeker?"

"I'll do it," Boris volunteered. He covered his eyes and began counting. Bendy rushed out of sight. Alice followed, though much less enthusiastically. Henry realized that he should probably find a hiding spot. Turning around, he scanned the place for a moment before choosing a closet. Leaning to the side to avoid being seen out of the rectangular hole in the front, he waited for Boris to reach sixty.

Boris finally stopped counting. Perking his ears up, he listened for any sounds that might give the hiders away. Hmm…He strained his ears and picked up on faint breathing. He walked over to the closet and opened the door. "Darn! I thought I had it," Henry complained. He sighed and smiled. "What was it that gave me away?"

"You were breathing. I'm sorry, I guess that was kind of unfair."

"No, you caught me fair and square. Well, now I know to be quieter next time." He shrugged. "Good job."

"Thanks. I better go find the other two now."

"Okay. Good luck." The wolf smiled and walked off. Henry sat down and waited. It was a little embarrassing being the first one found, but hey, maybe he'd have better luck in the next round. The Bendy clock tick tick ticked away the seconds. Almost imperceptibly, it was joined by another sound.

Henry frowned. That sounded like Alice singing. Why was she giving away her position? Had she already been caught? A few rooms away, Bendy shouted in dismay as he was discovered. He and Boris didn't come back right away, so they must have still been looking for Alice.

Henry stood up and tried to discern the source of the singing. It was quieter around one corner, louder at the end of the other hall. Eventually, he was led to…

"Oh no." The door was closed, but the singing was without a doubt coming from the other side. Henry shook his head and started thinking up the stern lecture that he would have to give the little angel for misbehaving. What trouble was she getting into now? Well, he had better get her out of there before she got herself hurt. With a sigh, he pulled the lever.


	2. Chapter 2

Ink and darkness were all the heavenly toys would ever see. Unsold, they lay in heaps and on shelves in the old storage room, trapped underground and condemned to a fate where no child would ever play with them. Henry was sure that he would find Alice ecstatically running around in an overjoyed frenzy over the sheer amount of toys in that room, but to his surprise, she was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the singing continued, its eerie yet beautiful notes sourced from somewhere further into the darkness.

"Alice, please come out now," Henry called. Lacking a suitable light source and quite unfamiliar with this part of the studio, it wasn't going to be easy for him to find the little angel. But she was either being extremely mischievous or she hadn't heard him, because the singing did not stop to give a reply.

 _She's quite a gal._ Quite a gal with a mind quite set on not listening. He called twice more, still receiving no answer. He scanned the room, feeling unsettled. He'd known Alice to complain a bit when she was told that something she wanted to do was too dangerous, but this was a completely different level of misbehaving. Why wasn't she answering? "Alice—" The lights went off.

Henry gave a muffled gasp. The room he was standing in was completely dark. He couldn't even see his hand if he waved it in front of his face. _The wall is a few feet to the left._ Stepping carefully, he reached it and got at least some sense of his bearings. He wasn't going to start panicking. There had to be a reason for why the lights had suddenly gone off. They were over thirty years old, after all, so it was logical to think that they might fail. Or maybe… "Alice please turn the lights back on." He waited for a moment. "Bendy, you aren't supposed to be in here, either." This was, by far, one of the cruelest pranks that the little demon had ever thought up. But he didn't answer.

Suddenly, the ceiling brightened up. Standing at the other end of the room was somebody, and it wasn't Alice or Bendy. The man's inky black hair was swept over his eyes, partially covering them, and a pointy pair of horns peeked out through the top of his head. He stared at Henry, his surprise clear. Henry couldn't help staring back. "Joey?"

"Henry, what are you doing here?"

"Joey, what are you doing here?"

They blinked at each other. Joey was the first to recover. He straightened his bow tie and walked forward. "You got Boris's message, didn't you?"

Henry didn't think that any excuse he could come up with in the next five seconds could be passed off as believable. Instead, he glanced at the entrance that Joey had come through and answered a simple "yes."

Joey grimaced. "I suppose you know, then?"

"That Bendy, Alice, and Boris are alive? Yes, I know that."

"Well, that saves me some of the trouble explaining this," Joey sighed. "They're nothing more than a pack of ungrateful little monsters." He nodded at Henry's shock. "I wrote and experimented, gave up sleep, went through so much trouble to bring them to life, and what did I get as a thank you? 'Mr. Drew, can you play with us?'" he imitated the squeaky voices of Alice and Bendy. "If it wasn't for my work with the ink machine bringing me back like this, they would have seen me drowned! But I'm so much stronger now." He grinned insanely. In the dim light, it was impossible to tell what on his head was hair and what was ink dripping down his face. "Soon, they'll all be sorry."

"Then why have you waited all this time to attack them?" _Keep him talking. He loves explaining his ideas. Keep thinking of a plan._

"Oh, there were a few imperfections with the first ink machine," Joey waved nonchalantly. "A few flaws I didn't have time to fix before Bendy murdered me. For instance, I had built it to work with toons because it had the least amount of failures with them than with anything else I was experimenting on. I was tweaking it to work with humans and it was giving better and better results, but I was unable to get it completely right in time. Hence, the side effects." He sighed and flicked one of his devilish horns. "And, ironically, I never thought to reset it to let anyone made with it walk on places without ink. I came back to find the first two floors clean. Had to start building from square one down here. But building is the easy part. It's the ideas that are difficult to come by. Creativity and imagination are the key to everything, didn't I always tell everyone?" He nodded, satisfied. "Once the new ink machine is ready, I'll be able to flood the upper floors and finally reach them again. Nothing in the studio will be out of my reach, and-Henry, what are you doing?"

In the time since his last response, the old animator had managed to edge his way back to the entrance to the room."Er, getting away from you," he replied. Joey blinked, entirely astounded. Henry took his chance and bolted.

When he reached the halfway point of the toy room, headed back to the door to the toons' quarters to get them out of there, his opponent finally recovered. Joey summoned a comically large hammer and, with all the logic of a character in an animated show, bopped it over the man's head. Henry fell, a circle of stars dancing around him to indicate that he had lost consciousness. Sighing, Joey dragged him off.

They got onto the elevator and went down a few floors. There was the new ink machine, waiting just the way he had left it. Joey dropped Henry next to the elevator shaft and got back to work. He'd decide what to do with him later. But for now, he had gotten a new idea. _Dreams don't come true by themselves,_ he thought, whistling up a tune.

A tiny drop of sludge leaked out of the nozzle of the great machine. It fell into a puddle below, making an imperceptible splash when it landed. Not fully conscious, Henry batted the air to defend himself. When he hit nothing, he sighed quietly and rested his arm on the puddle of ink. If his eyes had been opened, he would have noticed that it was shimmering unnaturally unlike any normal ink. He would have seen it seeping up and soaking through his sleeve as if drawn forward by an invisible force. Instead, he only noticed that it was cold. He turned his head to the side, trying to get away from it. The ink followed, clinging to him and shimmering even brighter. He opened his eyes and blinked, dazed. Joey was working a few feet away, too distracted to notice anything beyond his machine. Even with a splitting headache, Henry realized that the situation that he was in was not a good one. He stood up quietly and took a step backwards. Unfortunately for him, the only thing behind Henry was an open elevator shaft. Joey was so absorbed in his work that a demolition derby couldn't have gotten his attention, much less Henry's cry of surprise.

Through it all, the singing continued, the notes drifting unbothered through the darkness.


	3. Chapter 3

"Aw you found me," Alice pouted as she crawled out from behind the old piano. She stood up and stretched. "So Henry won this round?" she asked, seeing Bendy waiting a few feet away from the wolf toon but the human nowhere in sight.

"I already found him, actually," Boris replied. "You won this one, Alice."

Alice grinned, proud of herself. "Can we play something else now?"

"Sure. Let's get Henry first, though." Alice zoomed off, calling the man's name. Boris was left alone with Bendy. The wolf watched the cloud of dist that the angel had left behind dissipate. "Remind me to never let you two have sugar before bedtime," he murmured.

"Are you sure you found Henry?" was the first thing Alice said when she returned a minute or so later. "I looked everywhere for him but he didn't answer me."

Boris frowned. "Come on, we'll find him." He headed off towards the place where he had last seen the man.

"Maybe Henry thought that we were starting another round," Bendy offered. They rounded the corner and entered the toons' quarters. "I mean, we didn't come back and tell him that we were still looking for Alice, so he might have-"

"Wait," Boris interrupted. He frowned and perked his ears up. "Do either of you hear this?"

Bendy and Alice listened. Bendy shifted uncomfortably. "Is that singing?"

"It kind of sounds like me," Alice commented. "Actually, it sounds almost exactly like me." They listened for a little while longer. The singer's voice was indeed nearly identical to Alice's, the only difference being that it was a little less squeaky and high-pitched. Finally, Alice spoke up to ask the obvious question. "Who's singing?"

"I don't know, but I'm not getting a good feeling about this." Boris turned his ears, trying to find the source of the music. His unease only grew when he realized where it was coming from. Trying not to show his nervousness, he opened the forbidden door and pulled off the lever on the other side. He closed it from their side, and then removed that lever as well. "There. Whoever's out there will have a hard time getting to us now. And I don't want either of you looking for trouble, okay?"

Alice and Bendy nodded. Alice sniffled. "Look, nothing is going to come out and get you," said Boris, giving her a comforting pat on the head. He straightened her halo. "We're just going to keep the door locked so it's extra safe, okay?"

Alice wiped her eyes. "Okay," she sighed. The trio stared at the door in silence. "Hey," Alice said after a moment, "we were looking for Henry and we still haven't found him."

"Someone who sounds exactly like Alice is in the part of the studio that we've never been in and now Henry's suddenly missing, so do you think..." All eyes went back to the door.

"I don't want either of you following me," Boris suddenly announced. He put the lever that went on the other side of the door on the nearby table and he attached the other lever to the door and opened it. "Don't open this door unless you're sure it's me or Henry, understand?" Alice and Bendy both grabbed his paw. He glanced behind him and shook his head. "Look. I'm going to be fine. I just want you two to stay safe." He forced a smile. "I'll be back real soon. Don't worry." He gave each of them a hug before turning around. "Close the door behind me. And remember, don't open it unless you're sure it's me or Henry." He heard sobbing, and then he was alone in the near total darkness.

* * *

"Are you okay?"

Henry blinked at the bright light that was shining in his face. Everything was swimming, but the world was beginning to steady itself. He squinted into the light. "Huh?"

"I asked if you were okay. You fell a pretty long way."

Henry looked up. The elevator shaft stretched far above where he was standing. "I don't feel hurt at all," he marveled.

"Well, I've never seen cartoons stay down for long, so I guess it's reasonable."

"Cartoons? What do you..." Slowly, he looked down. The ink on the ground became a reflective pool in the light, showing the man an image that he did not recognize. The proportions were off, for one thing. There was no way that a person's head could be that big compared to his shoulders. Unless, of course, that person was Bendy or Alice or one of the various other characters that they had encountered on their animated adventures. Henry blinked, and a pair of pie-cut eyes mirrored the action. He looked at his hands. They were black and white.

"You seem way less surprised than you should be about this."

Henry sighed and went back to staring at his reflection. "I guess I've just gotten used to hanging out with cartoons. What about you, though? Why aren't you surprised that apparently people can turn into this?"

"I guess I've just gotten used to it as well." He heard the man sigh and then the light dropped, allowing him to finally get a look at the person he was speaking to. The man was covered in ink and in the place of a head he had a projector. "It's weird, I know. My old boss sent me a letter fifteen years after the place shut down and when I came back, he had set up this machine that did this to me. I've pretty much been hanging out down here ever since. He doesn't like coming this far down, luckily, so we should be safe from him bothering us."

"That's one thing to be relieved about, I guess."

"Yep." The projector-headed man realized that he had been shining the light in Henry's eyes again and he directed his gaze elsewhere. "Sorry. It's just been so long since I've talked to anyone." He sighed. "So my boss is a madman. What brings you here?"

"I used to work for Joey too, actually. I thought he was dead, but apparently he used that same machine to get himself to come back. I tried to warn Bendy, Alice, and Boris, who he also got to come alive, but I guess he must have caught me and turned me into this. I have to find some way to get us all out of here now and stop Joey, and at the moment, I have no idea how that's going to happen."

"Oh. That's...that's not going to be easy."

"Yeah." He stepped out of the elevator shaft. They stood in silence for a little while.

"Um, you said you worked here?" the projector-headed man attempted conversation.

"Yeah. I did the in-between work on the animations."

"Sounds like a nice job." He paused for a moment to think. "Harry or Henry or Harvey, isn't it?"

"It's Henry. Did you work up at animation as well?" He tried to match the voice with coworkers he only half remembered.

"I worked with the projector, actually," the man replied. "There...wasn't really much to do. I learned a lot of names, though." He shrugged. "I'm Norman. You probably don't remember me. I don't think too many people did with how solitary my job was. Joey, unfortunately, was one of the people who did. Otherwise, I wouldn't be like this right now."

"Well, maybe we can get ourselves back to normal." Henry looked back at the elevator shaft. "I mean, if the ink machine could make us into...whatever we are now, then it might be able to change us back."

"Maybe," shrugged Norman. "We would have to get past Joey first, though, and that won't be one bit easy."

"That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to stop him." He shuddered to think what might happen to Boris, Alice, and Bendy if his former boss completed the new machine. Somehow, they had to stop Joey. After that, well, hopefully they could get to the old ink machine and use it to fix themselves.

Norman shrugged again. "All right. If you're that set on going, then I guess I'll help however I can." He glanced at the elevator. "Joey'll be up there, so there's not much of a chance that we'll be able to go that way. There're some stairs, but getting to them means going through a bit of a maze. You'd better stay close. I don't want to be losing you." With that, he turned around and started to walk away. The projector created a ring of light on the wall and Henry saw that it was playing "Tombstone Picnic." Bendy was backed up against a wall, a shadow looming over him. He looked up, and then the clip looped back to the beginning. Henry could only hope that things would turn out better for his version of Bendy.


	4. Chapter 4

**You may have noticed that there is now cover art for this story. I don't make fan art because my art style doesn't match up with the styles of other peoples' characters, so they always end up looking wrong. I gave this a try, however, and I suppose it didn't turn out that bad. All that being said, enjoy the next chapter.**

The signs hadn't been lying. She definitely was quite a gal. Boris just hadn't expected her to be quite so insane.

"You really don't want to, um, talk this out?" he tried. Her only response was to tighten the straps that held him down. "Could you at least tell me why you're doing this?" he attempted anyway.

The horrific angel stepped back and smoothed her inky dress. "This is the only way that I can become beautiful," she replied as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

"Okay but...how?"

Alice's clone looked at him, annoyed. "I need your ink to patch up everything that's wrong with this body. I've been waiting thirty years to get as close to my old self as I can since that rotten Joey ruined me with that prototype machine of his, and I'm not waiting any longer." She picked up a waiting axe. She raised it, ready to kill. It was coming down—

"You're beautiful!"

Alice stopped mid-swing. "What did you just say?"

"I, um, I…" Boris cringed. Why had he just said that? Getting an axe to the chest would just make him pop up on the old page a couple of floors up, perfectly fine. He blinked at the malformed angel. "I, um…"

"No. Just no." Alice was shaking. Thick streams of ink began to flow down her cheeks. "Don't call me that. Don't." The axe dropped, thudding loudly when it hit the splintering floor. "I'm not beautiful!" she screamed. "Don't call me that! I'm hideous and everybody knows it! Don't call me beautiful I'll never be beautiful again!" With that, she ran off into the darkness, screaming all the way.

With a bit of effort, Boris managed to free himself. He looked around the room, shivering slightly when he got a good look at just how many of what seemed to be copies of him hadn't gotten so lucky. Somewhere out of sight, the strange Alice was still sobbing. She had looked so hurt, Boris almost felt sorry for her. He couldn't help but be curious about why there was a practical clone of the Alice he knew running around on floor nine. She might know where Henry was, too. At any rate, he was a cartoon with infinite lives, so it wasn't as if it would be so terrible if things went wrong. Taking a deep breath, he headed off in the direction she had disappeared in.

"Why are you here?" The strange Alice was sitting in an alcove next to a little podium. She glared at Boris.

"Look, I just want to talk," Boris replied. Alice didn't stop glaring, but she didn't jump out and attack him, either. He took it as a good sign.

Alice adjusted her halo. "You're the first Boris who's talked to me," she remarked. "I don't know if any of the others could. They seemed…less lively." She sighed. "Fine. I won't kill you. Don't push your luck, though."

"Believe me, ma'am, I have no desire to." She rolled her eyes. "I just needed to ask you something, Alice."

"I'm not Alice," she sighed. Her gaze wandered over to the picture of the angel who was a cuter version of herself. "At least, I don't want to be Alice. Before my life started being a mess, I was Susie. I hope I'm still her, but…" She looked down at her dress.

"Okay then. May I ask you something, Susie?"

"Fire away."

"I was just wondering if you saw anybody else around here. A friend of mine is missing, and I'm pretty sure he's somewhere in this part of the studio."

"Well, I haven't seen anybody lately, unless you count all those filthy, stupid ink creatures. If your friend wandered down here and didn't find me, then I'd bet that Joey has him."

"Joey? You don't mean..."

"If you think I mean some Joey who didn't build that accursed ink machine, then yeah, I don't mean Joey. What, did he do something to you as well?"

Boris grimaced. "You could say that." That made finding Henry an even more urgent matter. And after that, well, hopefully he would get an idea for what they could do next.

A hint of a sympathetic smile crossed Susie's face. "Well, Joey's camped out by the elevator, so that route's off our map. You took the stairs all the way down here?"

"Um, I did. Yes."

"You have my respect, then, Mr. Talking Boris." She tipped her halo to him. "Your reward, drum roll please, is more stairs. Hey, at least you don't have to do it in high heels." She sighed heavily at all the walking ahead of her. "Now if you give me a moment, I'll go get something that might come in handy." With that, Susie flipped her hair over her shoulder and brushed past Boris to retrieve her item.

Boris walked over to the picture of Alice in the back of the room. In it, the angel was standing with one arm out, halo tilted slightly back, ready to sing. Boris hoped that she and Bendy were staying safe. The faster he found Henry, the faster they could get out of this dangerous place. He sighed, and the picture fluttered on its peg. "Huh?" Boris frowned and lifted up the image. Taped to the wall behind it was a swarm of little photographs. Each one featured a young woman with long hair and a bright smile. She was dressed up in some of them, more casual in others. One of them showed her standing next to a man Boris recognized as Sammy Lawrence. The wolf lifted up the picture further to see the rest of the prints, and then he noticed that on the back side of the picture, all by itself, was a piece of paper. Against better judgement, he gently pulled the tape off and read it.

 _My dearest Susie,_

 _I was watching one of the reruns last night and your singing was as enchanting as ever. Truly, you have the voice of an angel. I apologize for how distant I've been these past few weeks. I have a lot on my mind, and I'm still trying to sort it all out, but I promise that things between us will go back to normal. Would it make it up to you if I showed you that big project of mine?_

 _Forever yours,_

 _Joey Drew_

"Funny thing to write to a person you're about to experiment on, you think?" Boris wheeled around to see Susie standing at the other end of the room, a Tommy gun propped up over her shoulder. "Relax, it's for Joey or any other monsters we might come across, not you," she rolled her eyes, noticing his shocked expression. "But yeah, I'm glad to see that someone takes an interest in my private life. The emphasis is on the word _private._ " She walked up and pulled the picture back down so it once again covered the photographs.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

"Just keep your paws to yourself, okay?" Susie glared at him in a way that screamed _don't push me._ She turned away and leaned against the door frame. "They say it's better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. I wonder if any of them know what heartbreak is." She sighed, suddenly sounding very tired. "You have your dream job, your dream life, and your dream future just ahead of you. Then you wake up one morning and you're a puddle of ink. Ironic, isn't it?" She chuckled slightly. The laugh held no mirth. "I can't bare to look at myself anymore. I used to be so beautiful. Now...well, angels can't stay flying forever."

Both were quiet for a moment. Then, "They can always get back up again."

Susie snorted. "What, do you think I should catch another clone of the Butcher Gang? Go out and hunt myself another speechless Boris? I'll do it, sure, but I've been doing it for thirty years and I still look nothing close to my old self. I keep wondering when I'll finally face the music that I'm never going to be beautiful again."

Wearily, she pointed the gun in the direction of the door and motioned for Boris to follow. She started to leave. "If it makes you feel any better, I don't think you look all that bad."

Susie stopped. "Great. The talking wolf toon thinks I'm pretty. What a relief." She gave a huffy sigh but, had she been facing Boris, he might have noticed that for a moment, the smallest hint of relief had shown on her face. The look disappeared after an instant but still, she couldn't help stealing a glance back at the first person who had complimented her in three decades. "Come on. Let's go," she finally said.

* * *

"Well, this part of the studio is fairly safe. It would be better if the Butcher Gang was smart enough to know what's good for them, but hey, we can't have everything." She chuckled softly. "I've probably bored you to melting with all this talk of my oh-so-interesting life. Please, tell me more about your Alice who's running around somewhere upstairs."

"Well, she and Bendy can be a handful, but it's worth it. They're so sweet and energetic and happy and," he sighed, "I just want to keep them safe."

Susie patted him on the back sympathetically. "We'll find your Henry and get you back up to the surface soon enough. I'm sure of it."

"I sure hope - Quiet!" he suddenly hissed. He pressed himself against the wall, hardly daring to breathe. Susie saw his ears perk up, trying to zero in on the noise. And suddenly,

"Henry!"

"Boris!"

They rushed forward to greet each other. "I was so worried about you!" Then, at the same moment, each noticed the other's traveling companion. "So, who's that?"

"Guys!"

The group of four looked up to see Bendy and Alice taking the stairs two at a time, waving excitedly. Puffing up behind them was Sammy Lawrence. And behind him... "Rose?"


	5. Chapter 5

"Henry! Boris! We waited for you for hours and hours-"

"The clock said it was only fifteen minutes," grumbled Bendy.

"-and we were really worried and then I remembered that there's a phone upstairs and so we found Sammy's number and Bendy called him and he said he'd come over but when he came he was wearing that Bendy mask and Bendy started freaking out-"

"It was weird and creepy!"

"-and so he took it off and then he got some searchers to figure out what was happening and then we were going to come down here but then Sammy thought that it would be better if we got some extra help so we turned on the old ink machine and I got out that flipbook that you drew of Rose for me, Henry, 'cause you know how much I like her and so we brought her to life-" Rose waved shyly. "-and then the searchers told us where to go so we came down here and we found you and then we said hi and that's everything that happened to us while you were away." She grinned, not one bit out of breath. "So what's been happening to you guys?"

Henry looked himself over. "Well, Joey turned me into a cartoon," he frowned, "and then I met Norman."

"Hi," said Norman.

"Hey, you used to work with the projector, right?" Sammy asked.

"Um, I did. Yes." He paused. "You're Sammy?"

"Yeah." The old head of the music department scratched his neck. "Um, sorry for kicking you out all those times so I could get to my sanctuary."

"Eh, no harm done, I guess."

The silence was extremely awkward.

"So, Boris, why don't you introduce me to mini-me and the rest of the gang?" Susie finally cut in.

"Oh yeah. Alice, Bendy, Henry, Sammy, Norman, meet Susie. Susie, meet everyone."

"Were you the one singing?" asked Alice.

"Yeah. It's kind of what I do."

"Cool! I like singing, too!"

"Well, she's enthusiastic, that's for sure. I must say I'm an instant fan." She shrugged. "Maybe you and I could do a duet someday."

"And I could hardly stand _one_ Alice," Bendy grumbled.

"Anyway," Henry started, "now that we've all met or remembered each other, let's get down to business. Does anybody have thoughts on how we can stop Joey?"

"As a matter of fact, yes," Sammy stepped up. "Everyone, meet Rose."

"Hi," the princess waved. She stepped forward carefully to avoid stepping in any of the puddles of ink but then she realized that her shoes were made of the same substance. "I'm still getting used to this whole reality thing," she blushed.

"Sorry we didn't have a lead machine or a graphite machine," Sammy apologized. "I guess I didn't fully consider the ramifications of bringing someone drawn in pencil to life using an ink machine."

"I'll get used to it," she shrugged. Blush darkened her cheeks again. "So, back to Sammy's plan. If not much has changed in the past hour, Joey is still nearly done with his new ink machine." Everybody nodded. "Well, I'm going to call up all my critter friends and ask them for help. They can help us stop Joey, and they can make the ink machine change our human friends back to normal."

"Um, how can we be sure that a bunch of squirrels and birds are going to know how to do that?" asked Norman.

"Well, how can a bunch of birds and squirrels sew clothes and talk?" Rose asked back. "This is a place where dreams come true, and I say that we're just as creative as Joey." She nodded enthusiastically.

Norman shrugged. "It's worth a try," Susie decided. "I'm in."

Joey was fitting a new gear onto the side of the main valve when the singing started. _Alice sounds happier today,_ he thought. He'd have to shut that infernal woman up someday. He sighed and put down his tools. Immediately, he was run over by a stampede of assorted woodland creatures.

"We have him!" Rose called triumphantly. She and the others charged into the room. There was the ink machine, still unfinished.

Joey threw a squirrel off his face and got up. "Get away from that!" he shouted. The man kicked two badgers and a rabbit out of his way and grabbed a hose that was hanging off of the great machine. "Come any closer and you'll be nothing more than a puddle of ink!" he yelled. The woodland creatures shied away. Rose stood up protectively and her friends scampered away to take shelter behind her. Joey glared and pointed the hose at each of his opponents. He settled on Bendy.

"No!" Henry sprang forth and tackled Joey. The hose flew in the air and sprayed wildly. Bendy and Alice screamed and Susie covered her eyes. In the chaos, one mouse swallowed its fear and dashed up to the machine to turn it off. The hose sputtered and writhed and finally fell to the ground, lifeless.

The fighting was over. Sammy breathed heavily. One of Rose's chipmunk friends rubbed himself against her shoulder in an effort to comfort her. Boris tried to tell himself that his eyes were playing tricks on him, that what had just happened hadn't actually happened. Norman couldn't pry his gaze away from the floor. His light offered a good view of the scene, and of the puddle that remained of Joey and Henry.

 **One chapter left.**


	6. Chapter 6

**I attempted to write romance because I need the practice. Idk what the result was. (Cue image of person shrugging)**

Henry was drowning in a well of voices. The constant, wordless screaming filled his head and seemed intent on driving him mad. He could have been there for seconds or hours or weeks for all he knew. There was nothing he could do to judge how much time has passed. There were only the voices.

After a while, the screaming began to quiet. One voice had outfought the others and it became clearer. Henry tried to focus on it. "Who are you?" he voice was still unintelligible, but it was making an effort to be heard. It condensed, shaped itself, and then Henry was staring at the figure of a woman. She raised her head and smiled. "...Linda?"

"It's good to see you again, Henry." She brushed her hair out of her eyes and smiled again.

He blinked at her and took in his surroundings. There was a floor at his feet and a ceiling above, but everything stretched out farther than he could see. "What is this place?" he asked.

"It's whatever you want it to be," Linda shrugged. "This is your mind, after all."

"Oh." Huh. "Then...you aren't real?"

"Nope." She leaned back against an invisible wall. "Your friends are working right now to bring you back to normal, conscious, human self. Soon, I'll just be another thought." She shrugged again, seeming fine with her imminent loss of existence.

Linda stood up straighter and a desk materialized in front of her. She sat down. She looked exactly how she had in high school, over thirty years ago. "So, um, how has life been going for you?"

"How should I know?" Linda shrugged. "I'm not the real Linda, remember?" She doodled a star on the desk. "Why don't you call her and find out how she is. You haven't taken the number out of your address book."

"I guess." He frowned. "I haven't seen you, or her, in over thirty years. People change."

"Sure they do," imaginary Linda smiled. "I can picture her in a nice, suburban neighborhood with a quaint little home. She parks her car in the driveway and her dog runs out the door to greet her. Her husband gets home a little later and they sit down for dinner and their youngest child proudly tells of how he aced the calculus test that day." The scene appeared around them as she talked. "Her life could be anything at this point. You'll never know unless you call her. And hey," she waved and the scene disappeared, "that studio of yours is still waiting to get started."

A new image appeared. A high-school Henry was sitting up against a tree. Linda was on the grass, a few feet away. She was laughing at something that he had said. "Hey, I'm serious," he insisted.

She laughed again and looked up. "I know you are," she smiled. "I was just picturing how it would be to go to the movies and see your name on the studio. It would be great, though." She absentmindedly plucked a few blades of grass.

"Well, if it ever happens, you'll be the first person I'll ask to join."

"Oh you're just too much," she giggled. A few strands of hair fell over her eyes, and she brushed them away. "I like that idea." She giggled again and the scene disappeared.

"There's still time to make that dream come true," the Linda that was still there said. "You're in a studio with no owner and you know three cartoons, a projectionist, and a voice actress who currently have no jobs. "And hey, you'll never know what Linda would say unless you call her."

"I suppose."

Linda stretched. "Well, I better get going. You're about to wake up." She smiled again and turned away.

"Wait." She looked back. Henry saw that she was beginning to fade. "I will call you. Er, the real you, at least."

"Cool," she smiled. And then she was gone, and Norman and Boris were helping him to his feet while everyone showered him with their relief.

 **And that's the end. I hope you enjoyed the story.**


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